The live performance in fact was more enjoyable than listening to the album. The Album Leaf had LED lights setup cued with music with a projector backdrop. The sound man had everything well balanced, and I was happy to see that there was a drummer on stage that accompanied a synthetic drum machine. The synthetic drum along with a drummers kick drum makes the more powerful. Let's not forget the awesome drum tom sounds. Heads were moving this night, and I could not wait for the next song to mask the annoyance of Wrigleyville drunk jock heads.

This is not the performance I witnessed, but was similar. In the video at 2:40 the drum toms come in strong and add an amazing touch to the powerful hook melody. I feel like I've earned an extra life to the constructed beauty and enjoyed watching spectators in front of me react the way I did. Excellent show.

Edit: I enjoyed this remix, "We Are (Jamuel Saxon Remix)" and wanted to include it in this ramble. It's a song that's made such an impression to where I have it stuck in my head during my morning shower.

Once The Album Leaf finishes, the ending of this video is annoying as hell - beware listeners.

My last day began with the internet being down all day for the company. Maybe it had something to do with the good luck prayer I said the night before - who knows. You know the idiom, "What comes around goes around". The boss was out for several hours in the morning wanting to get work done without distraction.

All employees were sent home early. I went home after lunch. I received a call around 3:05PM at home from the temporary project manager to complete my shift until 5PM. Jokingly I said I was at a bar celebrating, knowing that the boss Marvin Russell made this request. Being the good guy in all this, I worked after 5PM at home on my last day. I feel like I've earned some life karma points on this one knowing that the majority of the employees gave up for the day.

The web development department was eliminated because the company has no money and the department was poorly ran. I was never paid for my 11 days of unused vacation that I was promised by Marvin Russell (in person) weeks before my last day. After a heated conversation on the phone, he was refusing to pay my vacation because I filed for unemployment. Currently I have a pending case with the Illinois Department of Labor regarding this matter. My unemployment was protested by The Ocean Agency and I rightfully won. My unemployment lasted a mere 2 weeks before work was found.

I have never received any work since involuntary termination from The Ocean Agency.

After all the websites I've developed with this company, one word to describe The Ocean Agency is: thankless.

Now let me rest in peace after a hellacious 3 years.

The problem is that you are unable to simply output this file info using variables within a channel entries tag. I wrote a simple plugin that makes this a little easier. Any suggestions or comments are appreciated!

Requirement: ExpressionEngine v2.2

Download Entry File Data version 0.9

Many Wordpress sites that are running 4-5 plugins have styles and javascript that is loaded in the wp_head() function. In the end these loaded files may serve little or no purpose and slows the load time of your website. By cleaning your wp_head() of everything that you don't need, you can decrease the amount of time it takes for your site to load. It's important to understand what is necessary for your plugin to run first before getting carried away with the carving knife.

Here's a great start in removing all that header and footer clutter. Place this code in your themes function.php file. Every site is different, so you may find yourself wanting to keep a few things in this list.

NextGen Gallery Plugin

I never had a use for all the included header files that NextGen Gallery includes in the Wordpress header. Especially when I've already added my jQuery library manually to my template. The same goes for the stylesheets. I like keeping my styles all within 1 stylesheet and eliminate any additional HTTP request.

Pods Plugin

The pods plugin includes a ui javascript file in the header that I haven't yet found a use for - let's remove!

I've seen many shows at Kilby. Many of which are engraved in my mind from 6 years ago. My local favorites were, Smashy Smashy, Form of Rocket, Will Sartain, and Tolchock Trio. Unlike the city of Chicago where I live, Salt Lake has a close connected music scene of listeners and musicians. It's easy to remember a musician when the stage is no taller than foot and the venue has a fireplace in the commons area. A great place to talk about music, meet the musicians, and see and hear music that is literally in your personal face.

As stated, SLC music strikes me as a small and connected scene with the most friendly and humble people you will ever meet.

When developing I find it easy to pinpoint the template glitches when you leave caching as the last step before launch. The project manager decided on a soft-launch without publicizing the website, and this gave me time to see what goes wrong. Not all but the majority of my problems were setting a template to cache > "yes", and a simple fix of disabling this option. There are always time constraints in a given project for developers. I find it hard to remember what code is being used in a template and maybe it comes down to becoming more organized. My method is a process of elimination and I wonder if someone has a better solution in template caching. I think it would be beneficial to construct a detailed "do not template cache" unless...

What is your approach to site performance and EE template caching?

1. Inside the {exp:channel:entries} pair tag we use an if conditional to check if there is an existing entry within the loop until we have a final count of the total_results. If no entry is found, nothing is returned.
2. With PHP enabled in our template we take the total_results and assign it to a PHP variable we will call $total_results for consistency.
3. Now we need to divide our total_results in half, round the result, and assign to the newly created PHP variable $total_results_sliced. Our first set of returned entries will return in the first column, and our second set of results return the right column. To avoid a floating integer when dividing 2 by an odd number, I use the PHP round function so column_1 (left column) displays an additional entry. If there were 3 entries, column_1 would have two entries, and column_2 would have one entry. When looking at the design and content, this prevents your content being right-side heavy and the left-side looking weak. It all comes down to what you, the developer prefers.
4. A {exp:channel:entries} pair tag doesn't parse inside another, so we are going to go deeper into our dream and create a two_column template that we will include in our existing template.
5. Now use the EE embed variable to include the two_column template and pass the created PHP variable $total_results_sliced in our parameter for variable use in the next step.

The Embedded "two_column" Template

1. In the template two_column we have our two columns/regions created using HTML DIV tags. We call the same channel entries in each column.
2. In column_1 we set the limit parameter on our channel pair tags and use the passed total_results_sliced embed variable.
3. For column_2 we follow suit and provide the limit parameter with the passed total_results_sliced embed variable. We also need to offset the same number of entries that were returned in column_1 by using the offset parameter and the same embed variable.

The image below shows you that a hacked Wordpress site can also affect your listing in search engines like Google.

Wordpress doesn't have the best reputation of being secure and I've been victim to several Wordpress websites that have been hacked. This raises questions of a security hole in the newly released Wordpress 3.0, or DIYthemes web hosting security.

Around the year of 2003 my popular high school online discussion forum powered by phpBB was DoS attacked. Hostica reacted by giving me the boot with no explanation besides the fact that other clients on the same server were affected by this. As a client you would feel pretty confused in this kind of situation. Given the fact that they host you, your database and files. Hostica provided no backup of files or database. I lost everything. Every email I sent was avoided and they wanted nothing to do with me as a client. They never provided any evidence that a DoS attack did occur because of my domain and hosting plan. My argument is that web hosting companies on their part should plan for the unexpected no matter what their clients are running. Even if that platform has a potential security risk.

After a long stint, in 2006 I decided to give it another shot by renewing with the same hosting company for my personal domain. Years follow with people wanting me to build websites and are need of a hosting. I figured why not refer them to Hostica. Sure they dropped me in the past, but the thought I had at the time was that it’s no different than any other web hosting company. Man was I wrong.

After a few years or developing websites using Hostica’s service, never in my life have I ran into so many safe_mode quirks and permission workarounds. They now have overkill on security where you want to pull your hair out. Their knowledge base is terrible for answers, so majority of the time you need to contact customer support. Sure they are trying to protect their asses, but since the move to Media Temple and the way their servers are configured, web development is everything you would expect. You install any platform, set permissions and everything works like it should. Web hosting is a tricky business. Preparedness is key, and Hostica does overkill with security to where it’s a greater hassle for the client running any type of platform. You want to upload images and set permissions in Wordpress? Be prepared to find many quirks and brick wall security issues with these guys. There is more evidence of another Hostica customer not happy about the security and being dropped without notice here.

Here’s a perfect example of a support message I sent.

“ExpressionEngine’s support is trying to pinpoint the issues saying that this may be a mod_security issue. Do you guys run mod_security, and if so that rule is tripping on that request?”

Yes, mod_security is enabled by default. However, it has been disabled for the directory where the CMS has been installed. If any further issues are experienced, please contact us.

Do I need to contact Hostica for security permissions every time to get work done? Here is a written document titled “Hostica Spam Security Procedures” I was only able to find by Google when searching “Hostica Reviews”. Hostica never never publishes this information to newly hosted customers. After 7 years, this if my first time finding this document.

What made me finally call it quits was when I was developing the website your viewing now. The backend of ExpressionEngine was moving like a snail in server speed. Every typical website I visited was fine. I contacted customer support via email and this is the response.

It will be possible for us to migrate your Web sites to a newer server, which experiences less traffic. The process is entirely automated, and would not involve any Web site downtime. The process takes approximately 24 hours to complete. Do you wish for us to proceed?

So I pay for quality hosting, and you continue to keep me on an old server with a ton of traffic? Thanks for the heads up and making me wonder why. Funny how I get monthly email notifications from Media Temple about upgrades, security issues, and downtime but never heard a single peep from Hostica until I question what’s wrong.

Hostica’s prices are affordable, but beware of the many problems that go along with their hosting. Your website may dissipate into thin air without notice because of their own intuitions and suspicions.

Girlfriend’s Crab

My Undeveloped Crab

This has been going on for at least 2 months now. Randomly one day my crab mutated during chat. I checked within the GMail settings thinking that it was related to an emoticon setting but didn’t find anything. I’m waiting for the day my crab emoticon is fixed.

Note: The problem still occurs on PC, Mac, Work, Home, and a cleared cache.

In hopes that a Googler comes across this entry somehow in their database or query. Please give me an answer by responding to the comment form below. I know of many who are puzzled by this crab emoticon problem. Thanks!

07/15/10 – My broken crab mysteriously fixed itself. What makes this more strange is that my girlfriend now has the broken crab emoticon.

10/30/10 – My fixed crab emoticon is broken again and my girlfriend now has the ideal crab emoticon. What the hell is going on Google? I want my crab back!

One weekend we made a trip to PetSmart to find a simple aquarium. We were overwhelmed with many choices of aquariums, filters, plants, decorations, food, and fish. We went into the store having no knowledge about maintaining an aquarium and needed assistance. We had questions that pried answers from the PetSmart staff. Overall my reaction to the PetSmart staff was that they didn’t care, or they pretended to know what they were talking about. If these answers were not pried, we would have dead fish right now. Shouldn’t the employee be asking us what we are looking for?

The outcome after an hour was purchasing an Eclipse Hex 5 gallon fish tank (see review), gravel, fake plants, water conditioner, water test kit, fish net, and a book on fresh water fish. Wait… Where are the fish? With our many questions we learned that you cannot simply buy an aquarium and fish at the same time. We let our 5 gallon aquarium sit for 4 days and let the water mature before buying a fish. I wanted to do cycle the tank using an older method with a hardy fish. I have learned from experienced aquarists that patience is the key. If you are over excited and indulge too quickly you can overstock your aquarium that hasn’t yet cycled. If this happens your fish will suffer and die from ammonia poisoning.

Since then we bought another fish for the 5 gallon tank. We put the Tequila Sunrise Guppy in the tank with our existing Fantail guppy who’s name is Fanny. Fanny has enjoyed his alone time for 3 months solid without any fish. Once we introduced our new Guppy to the tank, Fanny harassed the new fish for several days.

To make a long story short, we only had the Tequila Sunrise Guppy for several months. He became unhealthy very quickly and my best guess is from fin nipping from Fanny. After days of suffering we decided to give him a faster death by putting him in the freezer.

The goldfish bought at the very beginning is named “Sonny”, who remained in a glass vase for the time being until we purchased an upgraded 2.5 gallon tank. Sonny has grown tremendously and enjoys his new tank. Note: It’s not the best idea to mix freshwater fish with goldfish. Goldfish produce more ammonia than regular freshwater fish.

Elliot was on door duty told me that the headlining act was “OSO”, a band from Santa Barbara, CA. The band members are Phil Taylor, Nick Conventry, Tim Beutler and Andrew Fedders. Elliot saw Phil Taylor play solo the previous year and wished that he was running the sound board, instead of being stuck at the door. I didn’t know what to expect since I had only worked a few shifts at South Union. Elliot gave me the rundown of the night ahead and mentioned that OSO will need a single vocal microphone in the center of the room since the lead singer Phil Taylor will play guitar, sing and ride a unicycle.

When you hear the word “Unicycle” you might think of a circus clown. My dad bought a unicycle for my birthday when I was 13. I can’t say it was the easiest thing to learn. It took 3 consistent days of practice while leaning against a massive brick wall and sometimes using ski poles. When I was able to ride and balance I would ride to school. When people see something out of the ordinary, it’s interesting to see their reactions. Some people smile and you can tell that you’ve just made their day, while others shout and heckle in hopes of you losing concentration and falling. I was a hypocrite that night. Before seeing the performance, I thought OSO’s performance would be a comical music act because a unicycle was involved. I knew I was dead wrong after I heard the first song. Riding a unicycle, singing at the top of your lungs while playing virtuoso music makes you feel like watching a once and a life time performance.

You may have preconceived thoughts of how a show is going to be, everyone does. On the porch of South Union overlooking the parking lot you see spectators and bands arriving. The band flew in from California, and stayed with friends in the city. Not long after the show I googled and found history on Phil in Chicago from the SonneBlauma Danscz Theatre.

Phil Taylor was born in Flint Michigan in the year of dragon, 1976. He has hitch hiked by unicycle through the United States, performed in nearly every state in the US, and now plays in a local music group, Oso, with whom he has recorded two albums. Recently, he was nominated for a best busker award at the 2006 Edinburgh Fringe Festival for his unicycle/guitar Bach inspired improvisations. In 2005, he performed with the Gambian Army Band in West Africa, trained and performed with a physical theatre group in London, and has done two music tours of the UK and Ireland. Phil played with the Chicago-based Quartet Volta Do Mar in 1998-2003 with critical acclaim. He earned a bachelor of history at the University of Illinois-Chicago, lived in a steel mill, and began doing solo performances in CTA subway tunnels. He worked as a bicycle messenger, raced in the burgeoning alley cat scene and was hit by cars three times. In 2003, Phil won the Chicago ‘Cutting Crew Classic’ bicycle messenger race, earning airfare to compete in the Cycle Messenger World Championship in Seattle. He made his way to Santa Barbara where he now works with troubled youth at a local high school, teaching music, jump rope, and art. He does street performances, makes visual work, and tries to sustain a healthy balance between rest and vigilance. Mangos are his favorite food, Keith Jarrett his favorite musician, and he is eternally grateful for the tutelage of Misa.

I admire when a band travels across the U.S. to play for an audience of 25 or less. OSO’s music moved me so much that I had to buy both albums, “48507” and “Lonesome Tunnel Hum These Strong Arm Drones”. Their albums are self-recorded and hand assembled with custom artwork encased in a protective beeswax coat. The compact disc is wrapped in a paper full of lyrics that were typed on a typewriter. I paid $30 for both CDs which I was well worth it. Phil gave me a discount and stuffed $5 bucks into my pocket and said “Thanks”, knowing that I wouldn’t accept the money if he handed it to me.

If you’re within the vicinity of Chicago, this isn’t a performance to miss. OSO is playing at Ronny’s Bar which is located at 2101 N. California Ave, Chicago IL on April 3rd 2009 at 9PM with American Draft (members of Volta Do Mar).

More OSO great links here:

• OSO’s Myspace
• OSO’s Facebook
• OSO on Last.fm
• OSO Video on VAYOR
• OSO in International News
• Blog of OSO Drummer - Tim Beutler
• OSO Duo at Burning Man
• OSO at Lightning in a Bottle
• Hard to find OSO blog entries from earlier times
• Audio Recording of "Uneasy Truce This Family Brings" Recorded by Echo Curio staff in Echo Park CA

Photo by Felix Friedmann Photography

This entire week I haven’t been able to work or focus, feeling dizzy and nauseous when I try reading anything on my computer screen. I wasn’t sure if it was the medication making me feel this way or sickness from the cat bite. I went back to the hospital and they said it sounds like symptoms of Cat Scratch Fever. Doctor said it’ll be gone in at least 10 days. Just a few more of days until I’m up and running again.